2017-2018

IMPACT REPORT

From humble beginnings more than 60 years ago, our Club continues to uphold our mission of uplifting and empowering generations of young people. We specialize in providing children with the highest quality programming and pride ourselves in being the largest youth development organization in Western Queens.

2017-2018OUR FOOTPRINT

This year, the Club served over 35% more participants than the previous year.

Our innovative and robust programming continues to attract countless children to our after school program, summer academy, weekend workshops and swim classes.

In response to the demand, we are thrilled to report that we expanded our footprint from 2 locations to 3 with the addition of our School-Based Boys & Girls Club at I.S. 10 where we reach 550 children annually.

While our Club continues to grow our values remain the same: high quality, affordable programs for all members of our communities.

4,000

YOUTH SERVEDIN 2018

600

YOUTH ENTER THE CLUB DAILY

78%

BELIEVE THEIR IDEAS COUNT HERE

96%

ENJOY ATTENDINGCLUB PROGRAMS

OUR COMMUNITY

We are located on the border of Long Island City and Astoria, Queens where more than 8,000 children live in poverty.

The Club prides itself in serving young people from a wide range of backgrounds and economic situations. Within one mile, there are over a dozen schools making the Club accessible for a diverse group of youth to learn and grow.

Many of our Club participants live in one of three nearby NYC Housing Authority residences: Astoria, Ravenswood and Queensbridge, which is the largest housing development in the nation.

The Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens is committed to being an anchor in our community and we strive to evolve alongside its changing needs.

Diversity of Club Participants (%)

OUR CORE SERVICE AREAS

At VBGCQ, our mission to build great futures manifests itself everyday through our core service areas: Academic Support, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), Healthy Living and the Arts.

Academic support puts youth on a path towards long-term success. During the 2018-2018 school year, the Club provided 159,300 hours of homework help and tutoring to all 900 after school members. We partnered with St. John’s University to secure college-educated volunteer tutors to work one-on-one with children.

STEM is an exciting program area we are continuing to build and expand. Our course offerings now include Lego Robotics, Coding and Engineering and the new Makerspace provides a state-of-the-art space for hands-on learning.

The Club is committed to providing youth the resources to lead active, healthy lives. We recently expanded our athletics curriculum to include a 15-minute lesson on the science behind physical fitness and healthy eating. Additionally, we are thrilled to be partnered with Brighter Bites, a national nonprofit organization that distributes two grocery bags of fresh fruit and vegetables to Club participants on a weekly basis.

We are developing our Arts programming with new classes in Comic Art, Sculpture and Media Arts while also diversifying the Dance curriculum to include Hip-Hop, Jazz, Broadway and World Dance. The Club's new media lab is equipped with video cameras and backdrops for student film making. In June 2018, the Club hosted the inaugural “Variety International Film Festival,” which featured 8 original films created by our Media Arts class.